The Need to Systematically Evaluate Clinical Practice Guidelines
Allen F Shaughnessy1, Lisa Cosgrove1, Joel R Lexchin1
1From the Department of Family Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Tufts University Family Medicine Residency at Cambridge Health Alliance, Boston, MA (AFS); the Department of Counseling and School Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston (LC); and the School of Health Policy and Management, York University, Toronto, Canada (JRL).
Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM
|January 12, 2017
Summary
Clinical practice guidelines lack standardized evaluation, impacting physician quality assessments and patient care. Developing rigorous, objective methods is crucial to ensure guideline safety and efficacy.
Area of Science:
- Medical Informatics
- Health Services Research
- Clinical Epidemiology
Background:
- Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are widely used for patient care decisions and physician quality assessment.
- Physician confidence in CPGs relies on the assumption of a rigorous, evidence-based development process.
- Current voluntary standards for CPG development are insufficient, leading to low-quality guidelines.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the unregulated nature of CPG development.
- To emphasize the limitations of existing tools for assessing CPG quality.
- To advocate for standardized evaluation of CPG development and dissemination.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on CPG development and evaluation.
- Analysis of current practices and voluntary standards in CPG creation.
- Identification of gaps in CPG quality assessment tools.
Main Results:
- The CPG development process is largely unregulated, despite voluntary standards.
- Existing quality assessment tools are time-consuming and not clinician-friendly.
- Few CPGs undergo evaluation for their impact on patient outcomes.
Conclusions:
- There is a critical need for standardized, objective methods to evaluate CPG development and dissemination.
- Ensuring a balance between risk and benefit in CPGs is paramount.
- Standardized evaluation can improve the reliability and impact of clinical practice guidelines.
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